Cookies and Cobras
by Ravenclaw'sWit015
Summary: Emma and Henry have an awkward moment that leads to a heartwarming discussion later on.


**Disclaimer: These characters belong to Eddy Kitsis and Adam Horowitz, not me.**

Cookies and Cobras

Summary: Henry and Emma have an awkward moment that leads to a heartwarming discussion later on.

* * *

_Shit! Shit! Shit! _Emma swore to herself as she ran around her room, rushing to get dressed. She was late to relieve David of duty at the sheriff's station and before that, she had to drop Henry off at school, which he was also probably going to be late for. She pulled up her jeans as she jogged over to her dresser to pick out a shirt. Crap. Nothing in there. She went to check the closet. So focused was she on getting dressed, getting Henry to school, and getting to work, that she didn't hear the padding of young feet coming up the stairs until—

"Hey, Emma have you seen my—oh man! Sorry!" Henry hastily covered his eyes. He didn't know his mom was still getting dressed. She was still only in her bra, _gross_!

Emma quickly grabbed a random blue blouse from the closet and covered herself with it.

"It's okay Henry, what's up?"

Henry still had his hands over his eyes. "Do you know where my backpack is?"

"Isn't it by the door?"

"Oh yeah. Thanks! And sorry, again." He turned to go back downstairs.

He decided to make himself a Pop Tart while he waited for Emma to get dressed. As he waited for his breakfast to finish cooking in the toaster, Henry thought back to a few minutes ago. He hadn't meant to, but he'd gotten a good look at Emma's stomach when he'd walked in on her. There was a long, vertical, white line going across it. _A scar?_

"Okay, kid, you ready?" Emma asked as she came rushing down the stairs.

"Yep. Do you want a Pop Tart?"

"Sure, thanks!" She grabbed one off of Henry's napkin and rushed him out the door. "We are going to be so late!" She groaned.

He'd ask her about it later.

v

Later that night, as the two of them lay side by side in bed, Henry thought back to the morning and remembered his mom's scar. He wanted to ask, but he didn't quite know how to bring it up. Finally deciding to just go for it, Henry turned over to look at his mother.

He poked her. "Hey, Emma. Are you awake?"

She turned over to look at him. "Yeah, kid. What's up?"

"I was just wondering, do you have any scars?"

Ugh, random much? Why did she feel like this was going to be yet another one of their late night heart-to-hearts? She loved the kid, really she did. But why couldn't he save these talks for early morning car rides, or for after dinner? Didn't he know 'bedtime' meant 'sleep time'?

"Oh sure. Lot's of 'em." She pulled up her pants leg. "Like this one on my knee. I fell off a bike when I was ten; I scraped my whole leg up. There was so much blood." She chuckled at the memory.

That wasn't what Henry meant. "Any other ones?"

"Ummm, this one on the back of my neck, from a bad bar fight back in 2007…I probably shouldn't have told you about that."

Henry was getting frustrated. He sighed. "Any _other_ ones?"

Now Emma was getting frustrated too. He was clearly up to something. "Look, if there's something you wanna know, Henry, just ask."

Henry shrugged. "Okay." Before Emma could even process an appropriate reaction, Henry reached forward and lifted her shirt up. He pointed to her stomach, trying to find the scar he'd seen earlier. But it was too hard in the dark. "What about _this_ one?" He asked pointedly, poking at her belly.

Emma looked down to where his finger was pointing. "That? Huh, you must've seen it this morning when you walked in on me." Henry blushed. Good thing it was dark. "Why didn't you just ask? I would've told you. It's just my C-section scar. Here" She reached over to turn on the bedside lamp so that he could get a better look.

She moved to sit up on her knees and pulled her shirt up further so that Henry could see the whole scar. Smiling at his curious but nervous look, she told him "It's okay. You can touch it if you want."

Henry traced the scar with his index finger. It was deep, cutting into Emma's stomach.

"What's a 'sea' section?" he asked. Did Emma have a swimming accident?

"A C-section," Emma said. "It's how you were born. The doctor cut open my stomach to pull you out."

"_What_?" Henry asked, horrified. "He just…sliced you open? _Like a watermelon_? Didn't that hurt? Oh man, I'm so sorry!" Henry didn't know having a baby was so painful. Poor Mom!

Emma laughed. "No, kid, relax. It didn't hurt. Anesthesia, remember?"

Oh yeah, Henry remembered. They give you stuff for the pain when you have an operation.

"So you didn't feel anything?"

Emma, still laughing, shook her head. "Nope."

_Oh_. Well now Henry had another question. "So, do you remember me being born? Or did they put you to sleep for that?"

Emma smiled. "I was awake. I remember everything. You wanna hear the story?" She asked, already knowing the answer.

"Uh-huh!" Henry nodded. He moved to sit up on the bed, crossing his legs Indian style, to give Emma his full attention.

"Well, let's see. You were born three weeks early. So I was kind of caught off guard when I went into labor. But luckily it was during the day, so I didn't have a hard time getting anyone's attention. They got me to the hospital pretty quickly." Emma didn't want to talk about having to flag down a prison guard. She didn't want to reference the fact that she'd been pregnant in jail, at all.

"What was the hospital called?"

"Arizona Heart Hospital. Anyway, I got there at like… I think maybe six in the evening." She paused. She didn't want to tell her ten-year-old all the gory details of childbirth. "And, long story short, your head was too big for me to do it the old fashioned way—or I was too small—however you wanna look at it. So I had to have a C-section. By the time the doctors decided to go this route, it was like, eleven o'clock at night. But honestly, the whole thing took less time than you'd think. Or at least it felt quick to me. One minute you were inside my stomach, and the next…"

"What?"

Emma swallowed back the lump that had risen in her throat. It'd been so long since she'd thought about Henry's birth. She'd forced herself to block it out for so long. Not because it was a terrible thing, just the opposite. Having Henry had been the best thing she'd ever done. And having to give him away soon after, knowing that she'd never see him again, had been devastating. She'd had to seal the memories away for simple self-preservation.

"And then there you were," she said, her voice tearful. Henry looked over and sure enough, there were tears in Emma's eyes.

"Don't cry, Emma," he said. He felt awful for making his mom cry.

"No, it's okay," she told him. "Henry, giving birth to you, was the best thing I've ever done. It's my happiest memory, hearing you cry as you came into the world. You were so perfect."

"What did I look like?"

"An alien," she said in a choked voice. Tears were still coming down her face.

"Hey!"

"Well, you did." Emma said as she wiped her eyes. "You were covered in slime! It was gross!" She snickered at the indignant look on his face, and continued. "But you were _my_ slimy little alien." She wrapped an arm around him and pulled him in close. "God, you were so tiny and precious. Only four pounds, six ounces."

"What happened next?"

"The nurses cleaned you up and handed you to me. The social worker was supposed to come, but it was like, twelve-thirty in the morning. So I just held you, throughout the whole night. Until she came later on that day."

"The whole night?" Henry asked, amazed.

"Yeah, they tried to take you away to the nursery, but I wouldn't let them. It was late, and when I told them that you were going to be put up for adoption, they caved."

"And it was just me and you for the whole night? You didn't fall asleep?"

"Amazingly, no. I knew—or at least, I thought I knew—that I'd never see you again. So I wanted to spend as much time with you as I could. So, yeah, I managed to stay awake for that whole night. I totally crashed the next day, though."

"Wow…" Henry breathed, just taking it all in. He'd been born in Arizona Heart Hospital. At twelve-thirty at night. And his mom had stayed up with him until the social worker came to take him away. But there was still one last question that was plaguing his mind.

"Emma…" He began. She turned to look at him.

"Hmmm?"

"Did you ever…I mean did you-. What I mean is… was I _always_ 'Henry'?"

"You mean, did I have any other names picked out for you?" Henry nodded. "No. After I decided to put you up for adoption, they told me that adoptive parents like to choose a name, even if you give the kid one. The new parents can still change it. So I didn't see the point."

"Oh." Henry said dejectedly. He liked his name, but he'd have liked to think that maybe he'd had another one. It would've been cool…

At the disappointed look on Henry's face, Emma corrected herself. "Well, I didn't give you a real name, like 'Nick' or 'John' or 'Adam' or anything like that. But I did have a nickname for you."

Henry perked up. "What was it?"

"I had lots of cravings while I was pregnant with you." She began. "But there was one in particular thing that I craved the most, cookies. So that's what I called you. Like, if it was late at night and I couldn't sleep because you were kicking me, I'd say 'cut it out, Cookie. Mommy's trying to sleep!'" Then, Emma wanted to smack herself. She'd never referred to herself as "Mom" or "Mommy" while speaking to Henry before. She checked to gauge Henry's reaction. He looked pensive.

"You know, we never did come up with nicknames for Operation Cobra," Henry reminded her.

"Yeah…"

"So, maybe… I mean Operation Cobra's over now 'cause The Curse is broken. But maybe 'Cookie' can be my nickname anyway. Just when it's the two of us…or-or something."

"Okay." Emma agreed. Then considered something. _Yeah_, she thought. _It's time._ "But only if you want to give me my Operation Cobra nickname, too."

Henry looked up at her. He didn't see that one coming. He thought for a moment. _Yep_. _She's_ _ready_, he concluded after a few moments' hesitation.

"Okay, _Mom_," he said, loving how it felt to call her that.

"Alright, _Cookie_," Emma said, loving how it felt to call him that again.

She turned to look at the clock on the nightstand. Almost midnight. They were going to be dead tomorrow. "It's late. We gotta get some sleep," she told him.

"Yeah, you're right, Mom" Henry agreed. He didn't think he'd ever get tired of calling Emma that. "Goodnight."

Emma turned over to plant a kiss on Henry's forehead.

"Goodnight, Cookie," she said.

* * *

**I don't know much about childbirth proceedings for people in jail-or anything about childbirth at all, really. I made all of this up. So any experts out there, please forgive my ignorance!**

**Please Review! **


End file.
